Spruce Lake Retreat — Local services in Barrett Township

I will definitely be coming again and I loved the ignite retreat. Had a lot of fun meeting kids from other churches too! Made some friends, great retreat for teens and youth groups. Lots of activities, laser tag was a blast. If you are at the gym and you want to go down to the main area with everything else I suggest walking, it takes 30 minutes as the camp is big but I enjoyed the walk with friends and youth leaders. I forget the singers name (blonde hair, played the guitar) but he was amazing and I enjoyed singing along for worship. Pastor Dave was great. He relates to the lesson and tells us a lot about his life. He taught me a lot. He also played basketball with us kids which was fun because he's a basketball guy. Each youth group had our own room to hang out and have group chats after lessons.

The snack shop upstairs was super cheap and sold shirts. Upstairs had some games like ping pong, carpet ball, and foosball. The pavilion (it's an indoor one) was nice and I loved having meals in there. I'm super picky but they had a ton of breakfast options (one morning had pancakes, cereals, fruits, bagels, coffee, apple juice, and OJ). Dinner was walking tacos with steak as meat which was great. Lunch was ham and cheese sandwich. Only issue with food was the snack bar down by the hotels. Food was good, but ice cream over froze or something and a ton of people then ordered ice cream and it took an hour to get it so me and my friends missed the rock wall. My friends that had come last year said this had happened last year. Was a little disappointed that I missed out on other stuff on a trip that should've been 20 minutes. It was ok for me though because I might've wimped out on the rock wall but my friend was disappointed.

Ok so I am already always disgusted sleeping in hotels but I hated sleeping in Carol Cottage. Even my friend who was ok with sleeping in hotels was like "ew it stinks" and we were too scared to shower. Beds weren't that bad but there was a weird stain on the sheets so I laid on a sleeping bag with my own blanket instead. The room wasn't very modern. Also all night the people upstairs were walking around and it was super loud like the floor was thin and it kept us up. Could also hear people talking on the other side of wall. I didn't shower but everyone who did said it was either hot or freezing water and you can't get an you can't get an in-between temperature. My friend said she thought she was getting boiled like a lobster. The guys stayed in a house and these was a brown splotch thing on the wall and they said it was like poop.

Woke up early and went to the big hotel and sat in lobby. Complementary coffee was great and view from the deck was pretty. Gift shop was nice. Got little siblings gifts and a sweatshirt and other stuff.

Gym was big, had rock wall, volleyball, basketball, 9 square, and different sports balls and flag football. upstairs had foosball, Nintendo, ping pong, carpet ball, and a chill area. There was a snack shop. Nature center has snakes and leopard geckos to hold. Taxidermys to look at and a touch section to feel cleaned claws and rocks and bones. In the winter they have tubing but,sadly,there wasn't enough snow. I think if the pond is fully frozen they ice skate but I'm not sure. It's okay there was still plenty of stuff to do and no reason to say your bored. I don't remember if I mentioned it but we did laser tag which was LIT, they had inflatables in the pavilion to hide behind.

Would 1000% come back next year. Just don't want to wait an hour for ice cream or sleep in...

Remember that this is not a resort or hotel, so the 5 star review is not indicative of a 5-star facility. It is indicative of a 5 star experience considering the kind of facility it is. That said, this retreat center is great. There is a mix of older, dated buildings and rooms and newer buildings with newer rooms.

The newer rooms are nice, but far from luxury. The beds are creaky and lumpy, the water pressure is very low, almost a trickle, and there is no tv in these newer rooms. The older rooms lack the same things but are much more dated and nondescript and also lack air conditioning. However, the newer building offers a semi-modern lobby area where you can get free coffee, sit at tables to play games, a large deck that looks out to a lake and mountains, and a large fireplace. Some of the public restrooms in the lobby and other public areas are actually pretty modern though. And they do have wifi, but it is spotty at times. Again, this is not a hotel!

As for the amenities, there is a lot to do here. There is a pretty decent sized pool and a kiddie pool, tennis courts, basketball courts, and there is a separate indoor gym (very dated) with volleyball courts and a small gym. There is also a campground for RV's and tents and a zipline! Within walking distance, they have built a whole new facility with a brand new gymnasium with indoor volleyball and basketball courts, and there is a new 30 ft. climbing wall here. Besides that, there is lots of good hiking trails, campfire setups, a lake with paddle boats and rowboats, and even a mini-golf facility.

The food is served at the cafeteria at set times throughout the day. For example, breakfast at 8 am, lunch at 12 pm, and dinner at 5 pm. There is an hour window to eat any of these meals throughout the day. Food is served buffet style and is mostly simple but healthy choices with salad served alongside whatever the main courses are. Nothing complicated here, just basic homestyle type food choices. And the staff here are wonderful, but do not expect hotel type services.

Lastly, bear in mind that this is a Christian facility, and it is a retreat center. That means this is a quiet place for families, churches, and even individuals who want to meditate, reflect, pray, etc. There are often several church groups here at the same time, and it is often a multi-cultural mix of people. There are even some Amish here. It is beautiful place to spend some quiet time, relax, do some hiking, and get away from the modern society and the rat race for a while. I have been to several retreat centers and this one is the best because it has a good mix of everything. Check it out and...

I came here with my family and my church Grace Reformed Baptist Church for a camping trip and retreat. I opted for camping in a tent (my first time) and the meal plan (do not recommend). Mostly everything was great. The campsite was fairly easy to find I had a water hookup and an electricity hookup so I got to charge my phone. I set up my tent fairly easily and was happy about that. The nature was pretty, the camping site was great, the bathrooms and shower stalls were well maintained and clean.

My family stayed in the rooms. The rooms are way more pricey and I heard a few church members complaining about the beds. I stayed in the room on my last night because my dad was worried about me going home with my son alone even though I would have been okay so he stayed past the point of my sisters going home and kept the room my sisters stayed in with him. My son got scared of camping on the last night so we ended up in my dad's room the last night, I didn't think it was so bad.

This is a Christian Camp so if you aren't Christian be prepared for the Jesus. I'm not sure if they allow individual stays but I was with the church. They gave us a designated space for devotional time, we had two devotional sessions a day. I love Jesus and am a Christian so when I got here I was like oh so much of Jesus loves you, so much of God loves you and I loved it. But if you aren't Christian and book a camping trip here you may not like it, you may be surprised so I'm just specifying.

Spruce Lake itself is on the small side, I got to check it out but I found the woods and campgrounds more impressive.

They have a snack shop that's open for a few hours a day. The snack shop food was great. My son and I missed the snack shop the first few days but we got to go on Wednesday and Thursday.

So the dining hall and meal plans. That's the one thing I wouldn't recommend. I opted for it because I didn't know how camping was going to be I wanted to try the tent thing first before I went gun-ho with bringing my own coolers and food. Next year I'm getting a stove and bringing all my coolers and my own food. I basically paid $100 for my kid to drink soda because he would not touch anything in the dining hall to eat during our stay. I had a lot of snacks for him, my family bought a lot of snacks for him as well and he ate fries at the snack shop so he was fed. Some of the meals were okay, some of the stuff was kind of awful. So everything about this resort except for the food was great and if my church comes back here again...